PESHAWAR: Resignations by nazims and naib nazims creating problems
By Mohammad Ali Khan
PESHAWAR, Dec 3: NWFP caretaker Chief Minister Shamsul Mulk has accepted resignations of several district, town and union council nazims, allowing them to contest the forthcoming general election from different political platforms.
Following the chief minister’s approval, the nazims’ resignation letters were sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for appointment of officiating nazims in their place, officials at the Local Government and Rural Development Department (LG&RDD) told Dawn.
Office-bearers in the local bodies are required to vacate their seats before filing nomination papers for National Assembly and Provincial Assembly elections, they said. The LG&RDD, being a coordinating agency for local bodies’ system at the provincial level, had so far processed resignations of three district and one town nazim.
Likewise, they said, the department had received resignations of a number of union nazims and naib nazims that were normally processed by the district coordination officers (DCOs).
The district nazims whose resignations have so far been accepted are Humayun Saifullah Khan from Lakki Marwat, Naseer Muhammad Khan from Charsadda and Ehsanullah Khan from Battagram.
Mr Saifullah is contesting election for a National Assembly seat on a PML-Q ticket, Mr Naseer Khan from NA-8, Charsadda, on a PPP ticket and Mr Ehsanullah Khan from his native Battagram district seat on a JUI(F) ticket.
Likewise, the resignation of engineer Shakirullah Khan, Peshawar III Town Council Nazim, has been approved, enabling him to contest the next general election from PF-5 (Peshawar) on a PPP ticket.
The LG&RDD has also received resignations of Shaukat Tanoli and Sardar Ali Zaman, nazims of union council Selhet and Bao (Abbottabad), respectively.
Under Section 21 of the Local Government Ordinance (LGO-2001), a district nazim may resign from his office by tendering resignation in writing to the chief executive of the province, who will then send it to the Chief Election Commissioner for issuing a notification under Section 164 of the same law. Under Section 22 of the LGO-2001, the deputy district nazim is authorised to act as district nazim till an officiating nazim is elected under sub-section (6) of section 156 or a new district nazim is elected under sub-section (5) of the same law.
According to officials, resignations so far received by the provincial government, were in different stages, which were delaying the nomination of acting nazims against the vacant posts.
“This is causing hurdles in routine operations of the respective district, town and union administrations because the nazims, who have quit their slots, are co-signatories to official bank accounts,” the officials informed.
Citing the example of Town Council-III, the officials said that staff of the entire council had not drawn its salary for the month of November mainly because the government had not appointed acting town nazim so far after the resignation of Engineer Shakirullah Khan.
The officials said that the town administration of the said council had on Saturday last approached the provincial government for authorising the Town Municipal Officer (TMO) concerned as the single signatory to the account for making obligatory payments without further delay.
Likewise, they said, in most cases district nazims were also acting as joint signatories to their official accounts, but in the absence of nazims in these three districts, day-to-day working of the administration was getting affected.
They said that the provincial government was forwarding resignations of the nazims to the ECP and now it was its responsibility to issue a notification concerning the acting nazims so that operational impediments could be removed.
The ECP, said the officials, was required under Section 156 of the LGO-2001 to hold bye-election against vacant seats of nazims of district, tehsil and union councils within a period of 120 days of the occurrence of the vacancy.
However, in the year in which general elections are to be held, the bye-elections may be held within 18 months.
Officials at Provincial Election Commission, when contacted, said that they had not received resignations from the provincial government. “Whenever we received the resignation, de-notifications of the nazims will be issued,” they explained.
